


Discount Coffee

by aces_low



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 20:39:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11997546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Mike owns a coffee shop in a college town and has an infatuation with one of his regular customers.Written for Gen Kill Week, Day 2 - Coffeeshop AU





	Discount Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Hurray, I actually wrote something! It's been a while!
> 
> Also, first official Generation Kill fic...so, hopefully, I did the characters some justice.
> 
>  
> 
> This is not meant to be a representation of the real men, just the characters in the HBO show

There’s no bell on the door of Gunny’s Coffee Shop, signaling when a new customer arrives, but Mike looks up anyway. He has a heightened sense about these things.

Or it could be the fact that it’s 7:45 and, like clockwork, Nate is always in for his morning coffee by 7:45.

If anyone were to ask, Mike would go with the heightened senses bullshit.

He looks just in time to see the wide smile spread across Nate’s face as he approaches the counter, and just like the first time, and every time since then, Mike can feel the effects of that smile in his chest.

“Hey Mike,” Nate greets, warmly. He’s one of his few customers who are morning people, at least enough so that he walks and talks and interacts like a normal human being – which is a stretch for most of the other college kids before noon.

“Nate,” he greets with a nod and moves over to the pot of coffee he’s just finished brewing. “Usual?”

Nate hums in the affirmative.

Once he’s paid for his coffee Nate picks up his cup. “Thanks, Mike. I’ll probably see you later.”

“We’ll be here. Have a good class,” Mike says, his standard departing words.

Nate nods but doesn’t move for just a second long enough to look like he’s waiting for something, before turning and walking out the door.

He takes a deep breath. Their mornings are never any different than that, but when it’s just the two of them, alone in the shop as they often are this early, Mike can’t help but feel a warm crackle of energy that rests itself on his skin and in his lungs. Now, he just has to prepare himself for this afternoon.

 

Mike opened Gunny’s Coffee soon after he’d left the Marines. He’d only just gotten the rank of Gunnery Sergeant when he’d decided he was done with the Corps, but the nickname ‘Gunny’ had stuck, like an ironic reminder of how far he’d gotten, yet how short he’d come up.

He had chosen to open up shop in a college town because, barring the competition, business would always be booming. College students love and need their coffee. Plus, college kids prefer to frequent a local shop over something like Starbucks, and as long as their wallets – or more likely, their parent’s wallets – allowed for it, they’d always choose a place like Gunny’s over a corporate spot.

It had been a sound business strategy, not one made with the consideration that most of his clientele would be college students and that he might one day be far too interested in one of those college students. 

 

“I don’t get why you’re so messed up about this. Isn’t that why you opened shop right next to a college? To hit on all us college guys?” Ray leans against the counter, not even pretending to work, as he partakes in his favorite activity - bugging Mike about his infatuation.

Mike quirks an eyebrow but doesn’t turn away from what he’s doing.

“I’ve never been attracted to one of my customers before,” Mike tells him, honestly. “At least, not like this.”

“Ah, shit, homes. You should tell him that. It’s all romantic and shit. Just tell him, ‘it wasn’t until I met you that my pedo tendencies really made themselves known’.”

“He’s 23.”

“And looks like he’s barely 18. Don’t worry, Gunny, I’m not judging.”

 

Nate’s eyes - usually a clear, bright green - are dark and squinted and he seems almost in pain as he listens to the guy he’s with ramble on. 

They’re over at Nate’s preferred table in the corner, where he often comes to sit and study for hours. It’s the perfect angle for Mike to act like a grade A creep and watch Nate get lost in his work. 

Mike tries not to watch Nate most days or at least tries to keep his staring down to just a few seconds at a time, with at least three minutes in between each glance. But today he can’t help but look over more and more.

First, he’d been curious, wondering who the giant meathead who was sitting with Nate was. When Nate had come up to get his first refill of coffee he’d explained to them that he was working on a project with the guy. Now, his curiosity is morphing into concern as Nate appears to be struggling to keep a polite smile on his face and honestly looks like the guy may be causing him physical pain just by his voice - or more likely words - alone. 

He’s wondering if he should intervene, rescue Nate somehow, when Nate’s chair scratches against the floor as he gets up from the table.

Nate takes long, slightly hurried strides toward the counter and nearly drapes himself onto it.

“He’s a senior in college, I don’t understand how he got this far in school,” Nate whines, voice slightly lowered to not be overheard.

Walt snickers as he continues refilling the pastry shelf.

“Student athletes are supposed to be held to just as high, if not a higher standard than any other student,” Nate argues to no one in particular, probably citing a rule that is enforced on the cycling team more often than to the football players.

“Can you get a different partner?” Mike suggests, taking Nate’s cup to refill it.

Nate frowns and glances back over at his partner for a moment, who seems to just be staring at the table, blankly.

“Craig is a nice guy, he’s just…not all there, ya know?”

Mike smirks. “Well, you just give us a signal and Walt and I will stage a fire or something.”

That makes the pout fall from Nate’s face as his lips spread into another one of his breathtaking smiles. Mike grabs a rag to wipe down the counters to hide his reaction to just seeing Nate smile, to being the one to put that smile on his face.

Nate’s smile is gone a moment later as he turns to look at his partner. He bites his lip and looks back over at Mike, clearly wishing he could just stay up front then go back and explain their assignment to his partner one more time.

But he takes a deep breath, nods at both Walt and Mike, and marches back into battle.

Mike is almost proud.

 

Nate startles a little when Mike sets a new cup of coffee down at his table.

He blinks up at Mike, comprehension slowly seeping its way into his eyes.

“I wasn’t asleep.”

Mike frowns. “No, but you’re on your way to it.”

“I’m fine, I-“ Nate cuts himself off with a yawn, and he quickly picks up his new coffee to hide it, or caffeinate it away.

“I shouldn’t have even given you that,” Mike tells him. “I should kick you out, make you go home and sleep.”

Nate flashes sad, tired eyes at him and Mike feels his resolve in that idea begin to wane.

“When was the last time you slept?”

“I slept last night,” Nate assures him, but he doesn’t look up, choosing to shuffle some papers around uselessly.

“For how long?”

Nate scowls. “I just have a lot going on right now, it’s just a couple more weeks and then I’ll be able to rest.”

“Weeks? I don’t think so, Nate. I will not be a supplier of caffeine to someone who’s plan is to run themselves into the ground and won’t even make it to graduation to see the benefits of his hard work.”

Mike takes the cup of coffee from Nate’s hands, ignoring the small, surprised whine that comes from that action, and walks back behind the counter.

“Mike!” Nate protests, following him up to the front.

“Get your things, I’m putting this in a to go cup, you can drink it to get you back to your place. But once you’re there you need to sleep. That’s a part of studying too, ya know, having a fully functioning brain.” 

Nate looks like he wants to argue, but either he knows Mike is right, or he’s too tired to come up with anything to say back. His shoulders sag and he walks back to his table to collect his things. 

When he gets back to the counter he reaches into his pocket, but Mike waves him off.

“It’s on the house.”

Nate’s grin is slow and he ducks his head, reaching out to grab his coffee.

“Thanks, Mike,” he says, sincerely. Then adds, “you’re a fucking nag.”

He can’t help but chuckle as he watches Nate shuffle his way out.

 

Mike frowns as he hangs up the phone.

He doesn’t buy Ray’s excuse of being sick, making him unable to close the shop tonight, but it’s also not like Ray to just give a bullshit excuse to get out of work.

He’d been looking forward to having the night off, not that he has any plans, his whole life is his shop, but sometimes it’s nice to just have some time away from it.

He sighs, knowing that tonight is not going to be that time. He won’t call Walt. He’d asked off almost a month ago when he found out his boyfriend would be on leave for the next ten days. He’s not going to take that away from him, knowing Walt would probably come in to close if he did call. 

The night is easy, and he gets to talk to Nate for a while – though he had apparently been busy when he left as he didn’t even notice him go – so it’s not too bad.

He cleans as much as he can before closing time, hoping the stragglers won’t ask him to make them something requiring more of the machines. 

Everyone is gone by the time he locks the doors, or so he’d thought.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees movement and he turns quickly to see who or what it is.

“Jesus, Nate, you scared me,” he says, watching at Nate walks up from the back of the store. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were still in here.”

He has no idea how he could have missed anyone, let alone Nate.

“Here, let me-“ Mike starts, reaching to unlock the doors again, but Nate cuts him off, close enough now to put a hand on his arm.

“Wait, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Nate’s proximity and voice are enough to make Mike’s heart start beating just a little faster.

“So, I decided I’m gonna go to grad school,” Nate says, when Mike fails to respond just moves out from under Nate’s touch back over to behind the counter.

“Oh yeah? That’s great,” Mike responds, a little absentmindedly. He’s never been alone with Nate like this before, it’s different from the soft electricity of the morning when they’re the only ones there. That is usually a nice, quiet moment before the start of the day. This feels like more, this feels like they’re really alone, together, and Mike is pretty sure he shouldn’t be this nervous by that fact.

Any hope of putting some space between them is lost, as Nate just follows behind him, leaning against the counter as Mike starts wiping down all the surfaces for any spills or crumbs.

“Do you want to know where?” Nate asks.

“Uh, Harvard?” he tries, remembering the Nate mentioned something about Harvard having an MBA program that he’d been interested in. 

Nate’s responding smile is wide and gorgeous and Mike, as always, can’t help the way his body responds to those smiles. It’s not really fair, sometimes with Nate it feels like he’s being attacked on all sides with his wide, green eyes and his bright, stunning smile and his sly sense of humor and that almost petulant way he pouts when he’s frustrated that just makes Mike want to pull him into his chest and ease that stress.

“Nope,” Nate finally responds, stacking some cups that had been moved and pretending to help Mike clean up. 

“Then I don’t know. Where’re you going?” he asks, as he walks over to the closet to grab a broom.

Only, when he turns around, Nate is standing just a little too close again.

“Jesus, Nate, I’m gonna have to put a bell on you.”

Nate holds back his smile this time, keeping it just a smirk, but he doesn’t back up.

“I’m staying here,” Nate tells him, and it takes Mike several seconds to understand what that means.

The realization that Nate will still be going to school here, that they can still, theoretically, see each other, causes him to smile before he can stop himself.

But Nate’s responding grin makes his own obvious one worth it. 

“Really?”

Nate nods. “I figured, at the rate this is going it might take me until that ends to finally get you to kiss me. Let alone ask me on a date.”

“What?” Mike can feel his heart in his throat.

Nate’s grin turns wry. “Actually, I don’t think I’m willing to wait that long.”

Mike is just about to ask ‘what’ again, when Nate puts his hands on either side of his face and presses his lips against Mike’s.

The shock of the kiss is enough to make Mike let out a small gasp into the kiss, which fuels Nate to push harder, backing them up until Mike’s back hits a wall.

That gives Mike the presence of mind to finally pull away slightly.

“I think,” he starts, breathing harder already, “this is probably a bad idea.”

“Why?” Nate asks, then kisses Mike again, softer this time and Mike really has no idea how he’s able to pull himself away again.

“I’m a lot older than you, Nate,” he tries, though all the reasons he’s told himself that this would be a bad idea are slipping from his mind with every second Nate’s lips are on him.

Nate rolls his eyes. “You’re not that much older, Mike.”

“Ten years,” he argues, for some reason that he doesn’t fully understand anymore.

“Yeah, maybe if I was 18 and impressionable.”

“Five years isn’t that big a difference.”

“So, then you agree, not that big of a difference as there’s only two, five years between us,” Nate says with a smirk.

Mike’s head is swimming a little and Nate’s faulty logic sounds genius at the moment.

“Are we done doing math now? I had kind of hoped we could make out a little more.”

He can’t help the smirk he gives from that.

Nate sighs. “Mike, I don’t have some kind of older guy thing. I just like _you_. You’re smart and funny and kind, and you call me out on my bullshit. Plus, you supply me with the best coffee I’ve ever had and I’m hoping to get some kind of discount for being your boyfriend.”

That gets a laugh out of him and he pulls Nate back into him, dropping the broom as he does so. 

Neither reacts to the smack of the broom against the floor, already distracted.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
